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Why the US needs a better strategy in Asia

With all the crises in the Middle East and Ukraine, and with Ebola spreading from West Africa to the United States, little attention is now focused on the Asia-Pacific. AEI Resident Fellow Dan Blumenthal explains why the United States needs a better strategy in Asia to counter growing threats and reaffirm strong alliances with our allies in the region. Get Blumenthal's new book Strategy in Asia here: http://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Asia-P... Subscribe AEI's YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/AEIVideo... Like us on Facebook   / aeionline   Follow us on Twitter   / aei   For More Information http://www.aei.org/policy/foreign-and... With all the crises going on in the Middle East, with Russia and the Ukraine, with Ebola, little attention is now focused on the Asia-Pacific. It’s very important for policymakers and political leaders to realize just how important the Asia-Pacific is. It is becoming the center of gravity of political and economic life, and just below the surface even though it looks stable, there are a lot of rivalries, a lot of military buildups, and a lot of concern about the future. Over the last five years there have been many high hopes for the U.S. in Asia, particularly since the Obama administration made claims that they were back in Asia, that they were going to focus on Asia, but now our credibility is harmed because the Asians are asking: what does it mean to pivot? What does the rebalance mean? What do you mean by that? You’re cutting your defense budgets. You’re not fighting for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. What does a pivot to Asia mean? And we’re seeing you back in Iraq and Syria at the same time, so our credibility is harmed by too much rhetoric and too little action. I think the Chinese saw their opportunity. They thought the U.S. was in decline, and now they think the U.S. attention is elsewhere. They know as well as anyone else that our defense budgets are declining, that our naval and maritime presence has to decline with it. China’s being much more aggressive in its maritime claims: in the East China Sea, in the South China Sea,, and in the Yellow Sea. That means our allies are involved: Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan. These allies are not as confident as they once were that the United States is able to defend them or deter the Chinese from acting. This is very dangerous because if allies aren’t reassured then China will be tempted towards aggression. We’ve lost ground in the Asia-Pacific, but we still have time to rebuild our credibility. We need to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership to show the world and the Asia-Pacific that we are still the leader when it comes to trade liberalization. We need to shore up our defenses and our alliances so that no one, particularly China, is tempted towards aggression. And we need to stick by our principles of democracy and human rights in the region. Why the U.S. needs a better strategy in Asia